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Italian grammar is the study of grammar of the Italian language.

Italian words can be divided into these lexical categories: article, noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection.

 

Articles

Definite article

Gender	Number	Article	Usage
Masculine	Singular	il/lo	Lo before z, sc, gn and consonant clusters (disregarding sonorants - sonorants are vowels + r/l/m/n), l' before a vowel, otherwise il. Note lo iodio ("the iodine"), lo Ionio (the Ionian Sea) where the initial i represents a semiconsonant sound; on the other hand, it is usual to employ l' before semiconsonantic u (pronounced /w/) in mobile diphthongs: l'uomo "the man", l'uovo "the egg" . However, foreign words beginning with w and used in Italian, like West (referring to the American Old West) and whisky, are sometimes perceived as beginning with a v sound, and the il article is used: il West, il whisky, and Giacomo Puccini's opera is La fanciulla del West.
	Plural	i/gli	gli (pronounced /ʎi/) before a vowel or z, sc, gn and consonant clusters (disregarding sonorants)
Feminine	Singular	la	l' before a vowel: but la iarda ("the yard") as the initial i is not a vowel but a semiconsonant.
	Plural	le	l' is used rarely before a vowel

Indefinite article

Morpheme	Gender	Usage
Masculine	un	uno before z, sc, gn and consonant clusters (disregarding sonorants)
Feminine	una	un' before a vowel

The forms l' and un' arise from mandatory elision of lo, la and una before vowels.

The plural of il dio ("the god") features an irregular definite article, being gli dei instead of *i dei.

 

Inflection of nouns and adjectives

Nouns and adjectives generally inflect by gender (masculine and feminine, with only some instances of vestigial neuter) and number (singular and plural). Inflection patters are similar for the two categories:

General noun and adjectival endings for number and gender

Gender	Singular	Plural	Example
Masculine	-o	-i	il capello nero , i capelli neri ("the black hair")
Feminine	-a	-e	la bella macchina, le belle macchine ("the beautiful car(s)")
Masculine and feminine	-e	-i	il/la comandante intelligente , i/le comandanti intelligenti ("the smart commander(s)")
Masculine	-a	-i	l' atleta entusiasta ("the enthusiastic athlete(s)")
All nouns ending with a stressed vowel	singular and plural are the same		la città, le città ("the town(s)")
Non-integrated loanwords			il/la manager trendy, i/le manager trendy ("the trendy manager(s)")

In the last two examples, only the article carries information about gender and number.

The Italian hard and soft C and G phenomenon leads to a few spelling/pronunciation peculiarities in certain cases:

• Words in -cio and -gio form plurals in -ci and -gi, e.g. bacio / baci ("kiss(es)")
• Words in -cia and -gia have been a point of contention; according to a commonly employed rule, they:
  • form plurals in -cie and -gie if the final letter before the suffix is a vowel: camicia, camicie ("shirt(s)"); ciliegia, ciliegie ("cherry"/"cherries").
  • form plurals in -ce and -ge if the final letter before the suffix is a consonant: frangia, frange ("fringe(s)"); faccia, facce ("face(s)").
  • when the i is stressed, it always remains in plural: farmacia / farmacie ("chemist's shop(s)"), nevralgia / nevralgie ("neuralgia(s)").
• Words in -co and -go behave quite irregularly. There are only partial, empirical rules of thumb:
  • plurals are formed with -chi and -ghi if the last letter before the suffix is a consonant or a stressed vowel: fungo / funghi ("mushroom(s)"), stecco / stecchi ("stick(s)"), mago / maghi ("magician(s)"), fuoco / fuochi ("fire(s)")
  • plurals are formed with -ci and -gi if the last letter before the suffix is an unstressed vowel: comico / comici ("comedian(s)"), medico / medici ("pyshician(s)")
  • in words ending with -logo suffix, the plural is usually in -gi when -logo means "expert" or "student", corresponding to English -logist (e.g. archeologo / archeologi, "archaeologist(s)"), while it is in -ghi when it means "speech" or "reasoning", corresponding often to English -logue/-log (e.g. catalogo / cataloghi, "catalogue(s)").
  • there are exceptions such as amico / amici ("friend(s)"), greco / greci ("Greek(s)"), valico / valichi ("mountain pass(es)"), carico / carichi ("cargo(s)").

 

Nouns

Most nouns derive from Latin and Greek or from a latinization of foreign words:

Latin derivation of noun inflections

Latin declension	Masculine	Feminine
1st (-a / -ae)	poeta / poeti "poet(s)"	rosa / rose "rose(s)"
2nd (-us / -i)	carro / carri "truck(s)"
3rd (-Ø,-is / -es)	cane / cani "dog(s)"	parete / pareti "wall(s)"
3rd (-as / -ates)		città / città "town(s)"
4th (-us / -us)	passo / passi "step(s)"	mano / mani "hand(s)"
5th (-ies / -ies)		specie / specie "species"
Greek words	problema / problemi "problem(s)"	crisi / crisi "crisis", "crises"

Any other noun, both those from Latin with an unusual ending and those derived from languages other than Latin or Greek, and not latinized (cifra - meaning "digit" - and ragazzo/ragazza - meaning "boy/girl" - are from Arabic, but they are latinized), and nouns ending with a stressed vowel are not inflected, thus:

• il re / i re - the king(s), Latin rex / reges
• il caffè / i caffè - the coffee(s)
• il film / i film - the film(s)

There are certain words (neuter in Latin) that are masculine in the singular and feminine or masculine in the plural:

• il braccio / le braccia or i bracci - the arm(s)
• l'uovo / le uova - the egg(s)
• il ginocchio / le ginocchia or i ginocchi - the knee(s)
• il sopracciglio / le sopracciglia or i sopraccigli - the eyebrow(s)

These nouns endings derive regularly from the Latin neuter endings of the second declension, but there are some from the third declension: e.g. il gregge / le greggi - flock(s). The use of one or other of plurals is sometimes left to the user, while in some case there are differences of meaning:

• sometimes, for body parts, the feminine/neuter plural indicates the literal meaning while the masculine one indicates a figurative meaning: il braccio ("the arm") / le braccia ("the arms") / i bracci ("the isthmuses", "the inlets"); il corno ("the horn") / le corna ("the horns" of an animal) / i corni ("the horns" as musical instruments)
• sometimes, especially in poetic and old-fashioned Italian, the masculine plural acts as a count noun, while the neuter/feminine plural acts as a mass noun: il cervello ("the brain") / due cervelli ("two brains") / le cervella ("the cerebral matter"); l'anello ("the ring") / due anelli ("two rings") / le anella ("ringlets"); furthermore, il dito ("the finger") / le dita ("the fingers") and also due dita ("two fingers") / but i diti indici ("the index fingers")

 

Irregular plurals

There are very few irregular plurals in Italian. Some of these are:

• l'uomo / gli uomini (man/men; lat. homo / homines )
• il dio / gli dei (god/gods; note also the irregularity in the article: gli instead of i)
• il bue / i buoi (ox/oxen)
• il tempio / i templi (temple/temples)
• l'ala / le ali (wing/wings) (but "l'ale" is allowed in poetry)

 

Modification of nouns via special suffixes

In Italian, nouns can be modified via special suffixes (suffissi alterativi in Italian) which give the noun a special shade of meaning. They are divided into diminutivi (diminutive, expressing smallness, as in English -let, booklet), vezzeggiativi (implying a nuance of affection), accrescitivi (augmentatives, implying largeness) and dispregiativi (pejoratives, expressing contempt or disapproval). Sometimes one and the same suffix serves the purpose of more than one shade of meaning. So fiumiciattolo (from "fiume", river, suffix -iciattolo) can mean both a very small river (diminutive) or a river which shouldn't even be called a river (pejorative). Not every noun is compatible with every suffix (and there are a whole host of them!), moreover nouns modified in this way can become nouns in their own right with a different meaning. For instance, telefonino does not mean "small telephone" but mobile phone/cell phone and casino doesn't mean "small house" (from 'casa')  but brothel!

	Suffix	Example
diminutivi (diminutive)	-ino	tavolo (table)	tavolino (a small table)
	-etto	libro (book)	libretto (a small book; booklet)
	-ello	bambino (child)	bambinello (a small child)
	-icello	monte (mountain)	monticello (a small mount)
	-icciolo	porto (port)	porticciolo (a small seaport)
vezzeggiativi (affectionate)	-uccio	cavallo (horse)	cavalluccio (a nice small horse)
	-acchiotto	orso (bear)	orsacchiotto (a nice small teddy bear)
	-olo	figlio (son)	figliolo (dear son)
	-otto	cucciolo (puppy)	cucciolotto (a nice puppy)
accrescitivi (augmentative)	-one	libro (book)	librone (a big book)
	-accione	uomo (man)	omaccione (a big man)
dispregiativi (pejorative)	-accio	libro (book)	libraccio (a bad book)
	-astro	medico (medic)	medicastro (a bad medic)
	-ucolo	poeta (poet)	poetucolo (a bad poet)
	-onzolo	medico (medic)	mediconzolo (a bad medic)
	-uncolo	uomo (man)	omuncolo (an insignificant man)

 

Adjectives

In Italian, an adjective can be placed before or after a noun depending on context and/or usage. There is no rule of thumb and only paying attention to the actual use of adjectives in relation to the accompanying noun can offer a safe guidance.

Adjectives are inflected by gender and number and there are three basic inflexion patterns:

Gender	Number	Type 1 4 endings	Type 2 2 endings	Type 3 same ending
Masculine	Singular	-o buono (good)	-e intelligente	- viola (purple)
	Plural	-i  buoni	-i intelligenti	- viola
Feminine	Singular	-a buona	-e intelligente	- viola
	Plural	-e buone	-i intelligenti	- viola

Type 1 and 2 are by far the commonest while Type 3 is absolutely rare.
 

Degrees of comparison

Italian has three degrees of comparison: comparative, relative superlative and absolute superlative.

The comparative and relative superlative degrees are both formed with the word più (meaning "more" or "most") or meno (meaning "less" or "the least" for instance:

• sono il più fortunato fra gli uomini ("I am the luckiest of men")
• sono più fortunato di te ("I am luckier than you")
• sono il meno intelligente della mia classe ("I am the least intelligent pupil in the class)
• sono meno stanco di te ("I am less tired than you")

The absolute superlative, derived from the Latin superlative in -issimus, is formed by adding -issimo to an adjective after removing its final vowel: intelligente ("intelligent"), intelligentissimo (same meaning as "molto intelligente", very intelligent); sporco ("dirty") sporchissimo (same meaning as "molto sporco", very dirty). If the two letters before the last vowel are pr or br (aspro, Latin asper, celebre, Latin celeber), the r is removed and -errimo is the suffix used instead (asperrimo, celeberrimo). Having said that, "asprissimo" is now much more common than "asperrimo" which is felt as being slightly antiquated.

Some adjectives form their degrees of comparison irregularly. For example:

• buono ("good") Comparative: migliore or più buono ("better" or "best") Superlative: ottimo or buonissimo ("very good")
• cattivo ("bad") Comparative: peggiore or più cattivo ("worse" or "worst"), Superlative: pessimo or cattivissimo ("very bad")

 

Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives, like articles, must agree with the gender and number of the noun they modify. Hence, mio zio (my uncle), but mia zia (my aunt). So depending on what is being modified, the possessive adjectives are:

Person	Masculine		Feminine
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st sing.	mio	miei	mia	mie
2nd sing.	tuo	tuoi	tua	tue
3rd sing.	suo	suoi	sua	sue
1st pl.	nostro	nostri	nostra	nostre
2nd pl.	vostro	vostri	vostra	vostre
3rd pl.	loro	loro	loro	loro

In most cases the possessive adjective is used with an article, usually the definite article:

Ho perso la mia penna.	("I have lost my pen.")
Mi piace il mio lavoro.	("I like my job.")
Hanno rubato la mia automobile!	("They have stolen my car!")

And with the indefinite article:

Un mio amico mi ha detto che...	("A friend of mine told me that...")
Ho visto una sua foto.	("I have seen a photograph of him/her.")
Luca è un mio amico.	("Luca is a friend of mine.")

The only exception is when the possessive refers to a family member:

Laura è mia sorella	("Laura is my sister.")
Questa penna è di mia zia.	("This pen is my aunt's.")

But mamma (mother) and papà/babbo (father) sometimes get the article.

For emphasis, however, possessive adjectives are sometimes placed after a noun. This is usually after words like 'colpa' (fault, sin); 'casa' (house, home); 'merito' (merit); 'piacere' (pleasure) or in vocative expressions.

È colpa sua	("It is his/her fault")
Oh Dio mio!	("Oh, my God!")
Arrivederci, amico mio!	("Goodbye, my friend!")
Vorresti andare a casa mia?	("Would you like to come over to my house?")

As the third person possessive (suo etc.) can mean different things in Italian ("his", "her" or "its") sometimes proprio (one's own) can be used instead of suo to remove any possible ambiguity

Marco e Maria erano in aula. Marco ha preso il proprio libro.	("Marco and Maria were in the classroom. Marco took his own book.")
Marco e Maria erano in aula. Marco ha preso il suo libro.	("Marco and Maria were in the classroom. Marco took her/his book.")

 

Demonstrative adjectives

Italian has basically two demonstrative adjectives: questo (pointing to that which is near to the person who is speaking, English "this") and quello (pointing to that which is not near the person who is speaking, English "that"). A third demonstrative adjective exists, although it is used only in Tuscany: codesto. Employed in a situation where two people are present, it then points to that which is near to the person you are speaking to (in this situation, quello comes to mean what is equally far away from both).

 

Personal pronouns

Italian features a sizeable set of pronouns. Personal pronouns are inflected by person, number and, in the third person, gender. Literary subject pronouns (egli, ella, esso, essa, essi, esse), rarely used in modern Italian, also have a distinction between animate pronouns (egli, ella equivalent to English he, she) and inanimate ones (esso, essa, essi, esse equivalent to English it).

Italian uses also the honorific pronoun "lei" (or Lei with capital L as it is sometimes written to avoid any possible ambiguity) as 9which, although identical to the word meaning "she", is used with the meaning "you" or, to be more precise, "honorific or formal you". Also the verb must be in the third person. This distinction between honorific and non-honorific pronoun is fairly important as not using the right pronoun in a given situation can cause embarassment or even anger in the person spoken to.

There is also the uninflected pronoun ciò, which is only used with abstract antecedents.

Personal pronouns are normally dropped in the subject, as the verb is usually enough to determine the grammatical person. However, they are often used when some emphasis is needed, e.g. sono italiano ("I am Italian", statement of fact) vs. io sono italiano! (i.e. "I am Italian, who did you think I was?")

Personal pronouns

	First Person		Second Person		Third Person
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Reflexive	Masculine		Feminine
						Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Subject	io	noi	tu	voi	-	lui (egli, esso)	loro (essi)	lei (ella, essa)	loro (esse)
Object	me	noi	te	voi	sé	lui	loro	lei	loro
Unstressed accusative	mi	ci	ti	vi	si	lo	li	la	le
Unstressed dative	mi	ci	ti	vi	si	gli	loro	le	loro
Unstressed dative before unstressed accusative	me	ce	te	ve	se	glie-	glie-	glie-	glie-

Notes:

• 2nd person nominative pronoun is tu for informal. For formal use, the 3rd person form Lei has been used since the Renaissance: it is used like "Sie" in German, "usted" in Spanish and "você" in Portuguese. Previously, and in some Italian regions today (e.g., Campania), voi is used as a formal singular, as in the French "vous". The pronouns lei (third-person singular) and Lei (second-person singular formal) are pronounced the same but written as shown (in casual use Lei is often written with a small initial, lei, which is wrong but very widespread). Formal Lei and Loro take third-person conjugations. The formal plural person Loro is very rarely used in modern Italian, replaced by voi without initial capital (e.g. "Gino, Lei è un bravo ingegnere. Marco, Lei è un bravo architetto. Insieme, voi sarete una gran bella squadra" "Gino, you are a good engineer. Marco, you are a good architect. Together, you will be a fantastic team").
• Accusative lo and la elide to l' before a vowel or h: l'avevo detto ("I had said it"), l'ho detto ("I have said it").
• When accusative pronouns are used in a compound tense, the final vowel of the past participle must agree in gender and number with the accusative pronoun. For example: hai comprato i cocomeri ? ("Did you buy the watermelons?") - Sì,  li ho comprati, ("yes, I bought them).  Hai comprato le mele ? ("Did you buy the apples?") - Sì,  le ho comprate, ("yes, I bought them). This also happens when the underlying pronoun is made ambiguous through elision: l'ho svegliato ("I woke him up"), versus L'ho svegliata ("I woke her up").
• In modern Italian, dative gli (to him) is used commonly as a plural (to them) instead of classical loro. So: "Conosci Luca: gli ho sempre detto di stare lontano dalle cattive compagnie" (You know Luca: I have always told him to stay away from bad companies"). And: "Conosci Luca e Gino: gli ho sempre detto..." (You know Luca and Gino: I have always told them...) instead of "... ho sempre detto loro di stare...". Also, dative gli (to him) is often used instead of dative le (to her)especially in conversational Italian. Example: Giovanna? Gli ho detto di non venire (instead of "Le ho detto di non venire) Giovanna? I told her not to come.

 

Unstressed pronouns

Though objects come after the verb as a rule, this is not the case with a class of unstressed pronouns.

When they are in their unstressed form, dative and accusative pronouns come before the verb. If an auxiliary verb is used, the pronouns come before the auxiliary. If both dative and accusative pronouns are used, the dative comes first. Pronominal particles ce/ci (to it) and ne (of it) are treated like accusative pronouns for word-order purposes.

Examples:

Davide lascia la sua penna in ufficio.	(David leaves his pen at the office.)
Davide la lascia in ufficio.	(David leaves it at the office.)
Davide ce la lascia.	(David leaves it to us.)
Davide ce ne lascia una.	(David leaves us one of them.)
Davide potrebbe lasciarcene una.	(David might leave us one of them)
Davide ce ne potrebbe lasciare una.	(David might leave us one of them)

The last two sentences have exactly the same meaning and represent two alternative ways of expressing the same thing. The first time round ce and ne are treated as suffixes of the infinitive form after clipping the last vowel (lasciar-cene from infinitive lasciare, the second time they are used as isolated particles.

Finally, in the imperative and infinitive cases, the objective pronouns come once again after the verb, but this time as a suffix:

Davide lascia la sua penna in ufficio.	(David leaves his pen at the office.)
"Lasciala in ufficio!"	("Leave it at the office!")
"Lasciacela!"	("Leave it to us!")
Davide potrebbe lasciarla in ufficio.	(David might leave it at the office.)
"Non lasciarcela!"	("Do not leave it to us!")
Davide dovrebbe lasciarcela. Davide ce la dovrebbe lasciare.	("David should leave it to us.")

• Dative mi, ti, ci, and vi become me, te, ce, and ve when preceding another pronoun: dammelo (give it to me) or develop as a me / a te / a noi / a voi when emphasized: dallo a me (give it to me). Notice the reduplication of m and l in the verb.
• Accusative mi, ti, lo, la, ci, and vi become me, te, lui, lei, noi, and voi when emphasized ("uccidimi" (kill me) versus "uccidi me, non lui" (kill me, not him)).
• Dative gli, le, loro (commonly gli) can be developed into a lui, a lei, a loro, when emphasized ("lo sai solo tu: a loro non l'ho detto" (only you know it: I didn't tell them)
• Dative gli combines with accusative lo, la, li, le and ne (partitive, meaning "of it" or "of them") to form glielo, gliela, glieli, gliele and gliene. Example: glielo devo dire (I must tell him this). These combinations are used for feminine and plural too ("Maria lo sa? Gliel'hai detto?" (Does Maria know it? Have you said it to her?). 

 

Verbs

Italian verb infinitives have one of three endings, either -are, -ere, or -ire. Exceptions are porre "to place" (from Latin ponere), and a few verbs ending in -urre or -arre, most notably tradurre (Latin traducere) "to translate" and condurre (Latin conducere) "to lead", "to drive". Italian grammar does not explicitly recognise verbal aspect, though different tenses and periphrases actually render different aspects.

 

Tenses

• SIMPLE TENSES (examples in the first person)

Tense	Italian name	Example	Meaning
Present (Indicative mood)	indicativo presente	faccio	NORMAL MEANING • I do • I am doing SPECIAL MEANING • I'll do/I'm going to do/I'll be doing
Imperfect (Indicative mood)	indicativo imperfetto	facevo	• I was doing • I used to do/I would do
Future (Indicative mood)	futuro semplice	farò	I'll do/I'll be doing/I am going to do
Preterite (Indicative mood)	passato remoto	feci	I did (in the distant past)
Present (Conditional mood)	condizionale presente	farei	I would do
Present (Subjunctive mood)	congiuntivo presente	(che) io sia	(that) I am (that) I be
Imperfect (Subjunctive mood)	congiuntivo imperfetto	(che) io fossi	(that) I was (that) I were
Present (Imperative mood)	imperativo	stai zitto!	be quiet!

• COMPOUND TENSES (examples in the first person)

Tense	Italian name	Example	Meaning
Recent Past (Indicative mood)	passato prossimo	ho fatto	I have done I did
Recent Pluperfect (Indicative mood)	trapassato prossimo	avevo fatto	I had done
Future Perfect (Indicative mood)	futuro anteriore	avrò fatto	I'll have done
Remote Pluperfect (Indicative mood)	trapassato remoto	ebbi fatto	I had done
Preterite (Conditional mood)	condizionale passato	avrei fatto	I would have done
Preterite (Subjunctive mood)	congiuntivo passato	(che) io abbia fatto	(that) I have done
Pluperfect (Subjunctive mood)	congiuntivo trapassato	(che) io avessi fatto	(that) I had done

• INDEFINITE TENSES

Tense	Italian name	Example	Meaning
Present (Infinite mood)	infinito presente	fare	to do
Perfect (Infinite mood)	infinito passato	aver(e) fatto	to have done
Present (Gerund mood)	gerundio presente	facendo	doing
Perfect (Gerund mood)	gerundio passato	avendo fatto	having done
Present (Participle mood)	participio presente	facente	doing
Perfect (Participle mood)	participio passato	fatto	done

Aspects other than imperfective, aorist (that are rendered by simple tenses) and perfect (that is rendered by compound tenses) are rendered in Italian through periphrastical forms which aren't recognized by the canonical Italian grammar as proper tenses.

Examples:

• Present tense, indicative mood, progressive aspect: io sto facendo (English: I'm doing)
• Present tense, indicative mood, inchoative aspect: io sto per fare (English: I'm about to do)

Remarks:

• The present continuous in Italian (io sto facendo, I am doing) does exist and is similar to that in English but is not used as frequently. Italians tend to use the simple present instead, except when emphasizing the ongoing nature of an action.
• The same applies to the past continuous (io stavo facendo, I was doing) as its use is considered interchangeable in most situations with the imperfetto (io facevo).
• The preterite or passato remoto (feci, I did) is becoming obsolete in spoken Italian (as in French and German) and is almost invariably replaced by the present perfect (ho fatto, I have done). It is still used in Southern Italy but is becoming less common there, too. It is, however, very common in literature and when you need to recount something happened in the distant past (for instance in the courts of law) so if you plan to read Italian literature or work in the law you will need to learn it.
• The Trapassato Prossimo (Recent Pluperfect) and the extremely rare Trapassato Remoto (Remote Pluperfect) are separate tenses in Italian, though not so in English.

 

Formation of compound tenses with the auxiliary verbs avere and essere

In Italian, compound tenses are formed with an auxiliary verb (either essere "to be" or avere "to have"). Transitive verbs use avere as their auxiliary verb. Verbs in the passive voice always use essere. As far as intransitive verbs are concerned, a reliable rule cannot be given, although a useful rule of thumb is that if a verb's part participle can take on adjectival value, essere is used, otherwise avere. Also, reflexive verbs and unaccusative verbs use essere (typically non-agentive verbs of motion and change of state, i.e. involuntary actions like cadere, to fall, or morire, to die).

The distinction between the two auxiliary verbs is important for the correct formation of the compound tenses and is essential to the agreement of the past participle. Sometimes verbs use both like vivere (to live): you can either say io ho vissuto (I have lived) or io sono vissuto (literally I "am" lived).

 

Past participle

The past participle is used in Italian as both an adjective and to form many of the compound tenses of the language. The past participle conjugated with essere (for unaccusative verbs et al.^{[clarification needed]}) follows the usual adjective agreement rules.

For the intransitive verbs taking essere, the past participle always agrees with the subject: lui è partito; lei è partita. This is also true for reflexive verbs, the impersonal si construction, and the passive voice, which also use essere (Si è sparato - He shot himself, against Lui ha sparato - He shot).

The past participle when conjugated with avere never changes to agree with the subject. It agrees with the object though, in sentences where a pronoun replacing the object is proceeding (e.g. Hai mangiato la mela? - Sì, l'ho mangiata (Have you eaten the apple? - Yes, I have eaten it)).

When the pronoun is first or second person, there is optional agreement: Maria! Giovanni ti ha chiamato / chiamata? - No, non mi ha chiamato / chiamata (Maria! Has Giovanni called you? - No, he has not). In relative clauses, the agreement is obsolete: La storia che avete raccontata (obsolete) / raccontato non mi convince (The story you told does not convince me).

 

Tense relationship in subordinate sentences

Italian inherits consecutio temporum, a grammar rule from Latin that disciplines the relationship between the tenses in subordinate sentences. Consecutio temporum has very rigid rules, though they are fading from spoken Italian. These rules order the subjunctive tense in order to express contemporaneity, posteriority and anteriority in relation with the principal sentence. In spoken Italian, though, the subjunctive is often replaced by correspondent indicative form (this is called crisi del congiuntivo, "subjunctive crisis", and should be avoided in a good Italian speaking and in formal language; however, in common spoken language, particularly in phrases with se, "if", it is sometimes used).

• to express contemporaneity when the principal clause is in a simple tense (future, present, or simple past,) the subordinate clause uses the present subjunctive, to express contemporaneity in the present.
  • Penso che Davide sia intelligente. I think David is smart.
• when the principal clause has a past imperfect or perfect tense, the subordinate clause uses the imperfect subjunctive, expressing contemporaneity in the past.
  • Pensavo che Davide fosse intelligente. I thought David was smart.
• to express anteriority when the principal clause is in a simple tense (Future, or present or passato prossimo) the subordinate clause uses the past subjunctive.
  • Penso che Davide sia stato intelligente. I think David has been smart.
• to express anteriority when the principal clause has a past imperfect or perfect tense, the subjunctive has to be pluperfect.
  • Pensavo che Davide fosse stato intelligente. I thought David had been smart.
• to express posteriority the subordinate clause uses not subjunctive but indicative mood , because the subjunctive has no future tense.
  • Penso che Davide sarà intelligente. I think David will be smart.
• to express posteriority with respect to a past event, the subordinate clause uses the past conditional, whereas in other European languages (such as French, English, and Spanish) the present conditional is used.
  • Pensavo che Davide sarebbe stato intelligente. I thought that David would be smart.

 

Regular conjugations

The infinitive of first conjugation verbs end in -are, that of second conjugation verbs in -ere, and that of third conjugation verbs in -ire. In the following examples for different moods, the first conjugation verb is parlare (meaning to talk/speak), the second conjugation verb is temere (to fear) and the third conjugation verb is partire (to leave/depart.)

 

Indicative mood

[show]	Present			Preterite			Imperfect			Simple Future
	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.
io	parlo	temo	parto	parlai	temetti	partii	parlavo	temevo	partivo	parlerò	temerò	partirò
tu	parli	temi	parti	parlasti	temesti	partisti	parlavi	temevi	partivi	parlerai	temerai	partirai
egli	parla	teme	parte	parlò	temette	partì	parlava	temeva	partiva	parlerà	temerà	partirà
noi	parliamo	temiamo	partiamo	parlammo	tememmo	partimmo	parlavamo	temevamo	partivamo	parleremo	temeremo	partiremo
voi	parlate	temete	partite	parlaste	temeste	partiste	parlavate	temevate	partivate	parlerete	temerete	partirete
essi	parlano	temono	partono	parlarono	temettero	partirono	parlavano	temevano	partivano	parleranno	temeranno	partiranno
	Recent past = present of avere / essere + past participle			Remote pluperfect = preterite of avere / essere + past participle			Recent pluperfect = imperfect of avere / essere + past participle			Future perfect = simple future of avere / essere + past participle

Some third conjugation verbs such as capire insert -isc- between the stem and the endings in the present, e.g., capisco, capisci, capisce, etc. It is impossible to tell from the infinitive form which verbs exhibit this phenomenon, which often originated in Latin verbs denoting the "inchoative" aspect of an action, that is, verbs describing the beginning of an action.^[5] There are some 500 verbs like this, the first ones in alphabetic order being abbellire, abolire, agire, alleggerire, ammattire and so forth.^[12] In some grammatical systems, "isco" verbs are considered a fourth conjugation, often labelled 3b. There are also certain verbs that end in -rre, namely trarre, porre, (con)durre and derived verbs with different prefixes (such as attrarre, comporre, dedurre, and so forth). They are derived from earlier trahere, ponere, ducere and are conjugated as such.

 

Subjunctive mood

[show]	Present			Imperfect
	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.
io	parli	tema	parta	parlassi	temessi	partissi
tu	parli	tema	parta	parlassi	temessi	partissi
egli	parli	tema	parta	parlasse	temesse	partisse
noi	parliamo	temiamo	partiamo	parlassimo	temessimo	partissimo
voi	parliate	temiate	partiate	parlaste	temeste	partiste
essi	parlino	temano	partano	parlassero	temessero	partissero
	Past = present of avere / essere + past participle			Past perfect = imperfect of avere / essere + past participle

• Third conjugation verbs like capire mentioned above insert -isc- in the first, second, and third persons singular and third person plural of the present.
• Compound forms (past and past perfect) are made by adding the past participle (e.g. parlato) to the corresponding auxiliary form (as "abbia") in the present and imperfect tenses.

 

Conditional mood

[show]	Present
	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.
io	parlerei	temerei	partirei
tu	parleresti	temeresti	partiresti
egli	parlerebbe	temerebbe	partirebbe
noi	parleremmo	temeremmo	partiremmo
voi	parlereste	temereste	partireste
essi	parlerebbero	temerebbero	partirebbero
	Past = present of avere / essere + past participle

From the table we can see that the verbs each take their own root, from their class of verb, -are becomes -er-, -ere becomes -er-, and -ire becomes -ir-, the same roots as used in the future indicative tense. Onto this root, all verbs add on the same ending, depending on the conjugation.

Some verbs do not follow this pattern, but take irregular roots, these include: Andare (to go) ~ Andr-, Avere (to have) ~ Avr-, Bere (to drink) ~ Berr-, Dare (to give) ~ Dar-, Dovere (to have to) ~ Dovr-, Essere (to be) ~ Sar-, Fare (to make/do) ~ Far-, Godere (to enjoy) ~ Godr-, Potere (to be able to) ~ Potr-, Rimanere (to remain) ~ Rimarr-, Sapere (to know) ~ Sapr-, Sedere (to sit) ~ Sedr-, Stare (to be/feel) ~ Star-, Tenere (to hold) ~ Terr-, Vedere (to see) ~ Vedr-, Venire (to come) ~ Verr-, Vivere (to live) ~ Vivr-, Volere (to want) ~ Vorr- etc.

The Italian conditional mood is a mood that refers to an action that is possible or likely, but is dependent upon a condition. Example:

Io andrei in spiaggia, ma fa troppo freddo.

("I would go to the beach, but it is too cold.")

It can be used in two tenses, the present, by conjugation of the appropriate noun, or the past, using the auxiliary conjugated in the conditional, with the past participle of the appropriate noun:

Mangerei un sacco adesso, se non stessi cercando di fare colpo su queste ragazze.	("I would eat a lot now, if I were not trying to impress these girls")
Sarei andato in città, se avessi saputo che ci andavano loro.	("I would have gone to the city, if I had known that they were going.")

Many Italian speakers often use imperfect instead of conditional and subjunctive. While incorrect, this is somewhat tolerated in spoken Italian (rarely in written Italian, even if it used to be a correct form in past times)^[13]:

Se lo sapevo, andavo al mare.	("If I had known it, I would have gone to the beach.")
Se Lucia non faceva quel segno, la risposta sarebbe probabilmente stata diversa.[14]	("If Lucia had not made that sign, the answer would probably have been different.")

The conditional can also be used in Italian to express "could", with the conjugated forms of potere ("to be able to"), or "should", with the conjugated forms of dovere ("to have to"):

[Lui] potrebbe leggere un libro.	("He could read a book.")
[Loro] dovrebbero andare a letto.	("They should go to bed.")

 

Imperative mood

[show]	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.
(tu)	parla!	temi!	parti!
(Lei)	parli!	tema!	parta!
(noi)	parliamo!	temiamo!	partiamo!
(voi)	parlate!	temete!	partite!
(essi)	parlino!	temano!	partano!

Verbs like capire insert -isc- in all except the noi and voi forms.

 

Non-finite forms

• Infinitive: present: -are, -ere, -ire; past: avere/essere + past participle
• Gerund: present: -ando, -endo, -endo; past: avendo/essendo + past participle
• Participle: present: -ante -ente -ente; past: -ato, -uto (though verbs of the second conjugation almost always have a contracted desinence, e.g. "cuocere" (to cook) "cotto" (cooked)), -ito

 

Irregular verbs

While the majority of Italian verbs are regular, many of the most commonly used ones are irregular. In particular, the auxiliary verbs essere and avere, and the common modal verbs potere (ability, to be able to), dovere (duty, to have to), sapere (knowledge, to know how to) and volere (will, to want to) are all irregular. Many of the irregularities are accounted for by the substance of Latin grammar; in Latin the verb had four principal parts, of which the third and fourth (perfect stem and perfect passive participle) were formed regularly from the present stem only in the first and second conjugations, whereas in the third and fourth (in -ere with short e and in -ire) the presence of the i on the stem caused a mutation of the following consonants and made irregularities at a very early stage of the language.

The first conjugation has the big majority of regular verbs (except "andare" (to go), "fare" (to do, to make (from third Latin conjugation)), "dare" (to give) and "stare" (to stay), which are strongly irregular). Almost every new verb (as neologism) enters in first conjugation (e.g. formattare (to format) is of first conjugation and perfectly regular).

The second conjugation is usually irregular. They are from Latin, where they were irregular too. The few regulars are from Latin second conjugation: like "temere" (to fear), "godere" (to enjoy)... The majority is from Latin third conjugation, which is practically all irregular.

The third conjugation (deriving from Latin fourth conjugation) has two different ways: Greek one (or incohative) with insertion of -sc-, "capire" (to understand), "io capisco" (I understand), and Latin one with no insertion, "sentire" (to feel), "io sento" (I feel). There are some irregulars, but not too many: example, "morire" (to die), "io muoio" (I die). The verb "dire" (to say, to tell) derives from Latin third conjugation, and is strongly irregular.

Most verbs of the second conjugation are irregular in the passato remoto (preterite) tense, which resembles the Latin Perfect tense.

essere (to be; an auxiliary)

[show]	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	sono	fui	ero	sarò	sia	fossi	sarei
tu	sei	fosti	eri	sarai	sia	fossi	saresti
egli	è	fu	era	sarà	sia	fosse	sarebbe
noi	siamo	fummo	eravamo	saremo	siamo	fossimo	saremmo
voi	siete	foste	eravate	sarete	siate	foste	sareste
essi	sono	furono	erano	saranno	siano	fossero	sarebbero

avere (to have; an auxiliary)

[show]	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	ho	ebbi	avevo	avrò	abbia	avessi	avrei
tu	hai	avesti	avevi	avrai	abbia	avessi	avresti
egli	ha	ebbe	aveva	avrà	abbia	avesse	avrebbe
noi	abbiamo	avemmo	avevamo	avremo	abbiamo	avessimo	avremmo
voi	avete	aveste	avevate	avrete	abbiate	aveste	avreste
essi	hanno	ebbero	avevano	avranno	abbiano	avessero	avrebbero

potere (to be able to, can, could; a modal)

[show]	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	posso	potei	potevo	potrò	possa	potessi	potrei
tu	puoi	potesti	potevi	potrai	possa	potessi	potresti
egli	può	poté	poteva	potrà	possa	potesse	potrebbe
noi	possiamo	potemmo	potevamo	potremo	possiamo	potessimo	potremmo
voi	potete	poteste	potevate	potrete	possiate	poteste	potreste
essi	possono	poterono	potevano	potranno	possano	potessero	potrebbero

dovere (to have to, must, should; a modal)

[show]	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	devo	dovetti	dovevo	dovrò	debba	dovessi	dovrei
tu	devi	dovesti	dovevi	dovrai	debba	dovessi	dovresti
egli	deve	dovette	doveva	dovrà	debba	dovesse	dovrebbe
noi	dobbiamo	dovemmo	dovevamo	dovremo	dobbiamo	dovessimo	dovremmo
voi	dovete	doveste	dovevate	dovrete	dobbiate	doveste	dovreste
essi	devono	dovettero	dovevano	dovranno	debbano	dovessero	dovrebbero

volere (to want, will, would); a modal)

[show]	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	voglio	volli	volevo	vorrò	voglia	volessi	vorrei
tu	vuoi	volesti	volevi	vorrai	voglia	volessi	vorresti
egli	vuole	volle	voleva	vorrà	voglia	volesse	vorrebbe
noi	vogliamo	volemmo	volevamo	vorremo	vogliamo	volessimo	vorremmo
voi	volete	voleste	volevate	vorrete	vogliate	voleste	vorreste
essi	vogliono	vollero	volevano	vorranno	vogliano	volessero	vorrebbero

 

Adverbs

An adjective can be made into a modal adverb by adding -mente (from Latin "mindly", ablative of "mens" (mind), feminine noun) to the ending of the feminine singular form of the adjective. E.g. lenta "slow (feminine)" becomes lentamente "slowly". Adjectives ending in -re or -le lose their e before adding -mente (facile "easy" becomes facilmente "easily", particolare "particular" becomes particolarmente "particularly").

These adverbs can also be derived from the absolute superlative form of adjectives, e.g. lentissimamente ("very slowly"), facilissimamente ("very easily").

There is also a plethora of temporal, local, modal and interrogative adverbs, mostly derived from Latin, e.g. quando ("when"), dove ("where"), come ("how"), perché ("why"/"because"), mai ("never"), sempre ("always"), etc.

 

Prepositions

Italian has a closed class of basic prepositions, to which a number of adverbs can be added that also double as prepositions, e.g.: sopra il tavolo ("upon the table"), prima di adesso ("before now").

In modern Italian the prepositions tra and fra are interchangeable, and often chosen on the basis of euphony: tra fratelli ("among brothers") vs. fra i tralicci ("between the power pylons").

All the basic prepositions except tra and fra are compulsorily combined with the definite article, per and con excepted (combining them is optional and mostly obsolescent).

Italian	English	Preposition + article
di	of, from	del, dello, della / dei, degli, delle
a	to, at	al, allo, alla / ai, agli, alle
da	from, by	dal, dallo, dalla / dai, dagli, dalle
in	in	nel, nello, nella / nei, negli, nelle
con	with	col, collo, colla / coi, cogli, colle
su	on, about	sul, sullo, sulla / sui, sugli, sulle
per	for, through	pel, pello, pella / pei, pegli, pelle
tra / fra	between, among

 

Sentences and word order

Italian is a SVO language. Nevertheless, the SVO sequence is sometimes replaced by one of the other arrangements (SOV, VSO, OVS, etc.), especially for reasons of emphasis and, in literature, for reasons of style and metre: Italian has a relatively free word order.

The subject is usually omitted when it is a pronoun – distinctive verb conjugations make it redundant. Subject pronouns are considered emphatic when used at all.

Questions are formed by a rising intonation at the end of the sentence (in written form, a question mark). There is usually no other special marker, although wh-movement does usually occur. In general, intonation and context are important to recognize questions from affirmative statements.

Davide è arrivato in ufficio.	(David has arrived at the office.)
Davide è arrivato in ufficio?	(Has David arrived at the office?)
Perché Davide è arrivato in ufficio?	(Why has David arrived at the office?)
Perché Davide è arrivato in ufficio.	(Because David has arrived at the office.)
È arrivato Davide in ufficio.	("It was David who arrived at the office" or "David arrived at the office" - depending on the intonation)
È arrivato Davide in ufficio?	(Has David, in particular, arrived at the office?)
È arrivato in ufficio.	(He has arrived at the office.)
Lui è arrivato in ufficio.	(He has arrived at the office.)
Chi è arrivato in ufficio?	(Who has arrived at the office?)

In general, adjectives come after the noun they modify, adverbs after the verb. But: as with French, adjectives coming before the noun indicate essential quality of the noun. Demonstratives (e.g. questo this, quello that) come before the noun, and a few particular adjectives (e.g. bello) may be inflected like demonstratives and placed before the noun.

 

Some common grammar mistakes in Italian language

Among the deprecated^{[by whom?]} Italian grammar uses are:

• in spoken informal or dialectal language, the usage of an indicative form where a subjunctive one is required (see also above). For Instance: credo che Giorgio ieri fosse a casa ("I believe that yesterday George was at home") is right, credo che Giorgio ieri era a casa is deprecated; se Maria fosse stata a casa, le avrei telefonato ("if Mary had been at home, I would have telephoned her") is right, se Maria era a casa le telefonavo is deprecated^{[by whom?]}, even if it is an old usage, found in classic Italian writers;
• the feminine pronoun le ("(to) her") sometimes in spoken language is replaced with gli ("(to) him"), in example: ho incontrato Giulia e le ho detto che Franco è ammalato ("I met Julia and I told her that Frank is sick") is right, ho incontrato Giulia e gli ho detto che Franco è ammalato is wrong.
• the nominative third person pronouns (egli, ella, essi) and the courtesy form (Ella) are being replaced by their accusative forms (lui, lei, loro and Lei). The usage, while formally erroneous, is generally accepted.